Hello, world!

Today is Benjamin's seventh day of life and he is loving it! How could he not?

He was born on June 15th (00:28) weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz. At his doctor's appointment yesterday he weighed 7 lbs. What a good little eater!

He already blesses our lives so much. The first blessing he gave us (me) was only taking 6 hours to be born, thank you!

We love to just look at him.

We came home from the hospital Saturday afternoon. Benjamin was so excited to be home he soiled 3 outfits in 15 minutes! I seriously don't know how he can soak his whole outfit while keeping his diaper dry. He's obviously quite talented.

And we can't get enough of him. 

Welcome to the world, little guy!

Janet Markham took these perfect pictures.

11,111

As of today there have been 11,111 views of my blog - pretty cool, huh? 1 more or 1 less wouldn't have been nearly as exciting.

Evidently, this baby hasn't decided to make his appearance yet so we're still chugging along doing fun things here and there.

Still goofy

Still happy

Daniel loves lacrosse!

 Wanna see him score??
He's #25

We went to Proctors to see Beauty and the Beast!

It was super fun :)

Belly shot in my lime green, childhood bathroom
38 weeks

Look at my mom's cute shoes!
And face of course. :)

We seriously do hang out with Doug's family, for some reason I've just forgotten to take pictures whenever we do! This weekend we went to Schoharie and had dinner with grandparents, cousins and aunts and uncles. I love living so close to so much family - there is always so much going on that's it's easy to keep busy. 

Memorial Day Weekend

I have to say, holidays are way more fun when spent with family, and when stretched over several days! For Memorial Day (weekend) Doug and I went up to the lakehouse with the Standage clan.

We played a lot of Bang! ate a lot of food (probably too much?) and played in the sun.

Some badminton

Some water skiing

I didn't ski, in case you were wondering.

And what would Memorial Day be without basketball??

Some Father/Son-in-law tension? haha...

Oh and I apologize for the poor-ish quality of the pictures, I had to zoom in quite a bit on account that I didn't want to get out of my chair, lol.

The weather was superb! Doug and Daniel got sunburned because they were too lazy to put on sunscreen. Poor babies.

No pictures of me because I'm the one holding the camera - too bad...

Baby shower #2

Wow, time flies! We've been here 2 1/2 weeks but it seems like we got here yesterday. I am wholeheartedly enjoying my time here - I really couldn't say that enough. We are so blessed that Doug has work, and it's so close to where we're living, that my parent's are letting us live with them, I've found a good doctor and pediatrician, we live so close to Doug's family, I could go on and on. We are so spoiled these days.

Speaking of spoiled, Christy (my sister-in-law) threw me a fabulous baby shower Saturday before last. It was so well-planned, decorated, and fun!

We played Pictionary; and I have to give props to Meg for tastefully and successfully getting us to guess "circumcision."

I (baby and me, and Doug I guess) made out like a bandit with gifts.
These are basically the only pictures where I didn't look like a fool...

So thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who came (especially those who traveled!), and especially to Christy for making the whole thing happen :).

Settling

Said hi to the fam(s)

Played Monopoly Deal with the kiddos

Checked in with the doctor (baby is in the ready position!)

Ate delicious homemade meals

Reset the car radio stations

All systems go for a good summer in the Empire State!

It all started when

Did you know that FB keeps all your messages?

So I happened to be writing my favorite husband a message when I wanted to see what Doug and I were talking about the last time we messaged each other. Soon I was reading about when we were first married, and then engaged, and then before engaged (it's so fun to be reading a story when you know that exciting things are just around the corner!) and then when we had just started dating, all the way back to the very very first message.  Wanna read it?

Haha! apparently I hadn't counted on his negotiation methods :).

Unfortunately FB didn't keep our chats. Otherwise I could share with you the chat in which Doug asked me out on our first date. Yes, via facebook! Despite that minor faux pas, he was rather clever. Now that we don't have firm evidence (and our stories differ slightly) we'll just have to go off what we wrote in our journals. Of course Doug completely skips over how he asked me out (and doesn't even write about it until a month later!) and I basically transcribed the conversation the day after. So whose do you think is more reliable, eh?

And almost four years later we're having a baby. Who woulda thunk?

Let the countdown begin!

Only six weeks left until my due date! (June 16th) I don't quite know what to think. 

But this is what I look like these days:

Sometimes I'll be walking around and forget I'm pregnant. It usually doesn't last long because I either spill on myself or bump into something.

Last week Katrina put on a baby shower for me. It was great!

The food was fantastic (this doesn't show all of it).
Notice the pretty landscape in the background!

And a shout out to Kate for making everything look pretty.

And to Sarah for providing the backyard :).

Some of the crew

Typical me, by the time I remembered to take pictures the party was over. 

Haha, so we just gathered up who was left. 

Oh, and my neighbor, Elise had her baby this week! It was delightful to hold a precious newborn and a little unnerving to realize my baby is currently only 4 inches shorter. How can they fit in there?

An outfit I made (I didn't make the onesie...) for the
lovely little lady

In other news we're getting really excited to go to NY for the summer. My last day of work (perhaps EVER) and Doug's last day of finals is Wednesday. Hallelujah!